What is the Consensus Party? In short, they want to get rid of the party-based political system because they think partisan politics are making it hard to pass meaningful, representational democratic change. Yes, you heard that right, they want to get rid of all political parties, and yes, they understand the irony of forming a political party to get rid of political parties.

The exact mechanics of how government will work without political parties will be left for Consensus Party candidate Ron Patava to explain. His party first took those ideas for a test spin in 2018 with 10 candidates across Ontario, and in this election they have 18 in all, so they must be on to something, right? We bemoan partisan politics, and the way they divide us, so it might makes sense to people to just get rid of it all. Patava’s banking on that kind of thinking!

The candidate himself is a retired businessman who’s held management roles with CIBC, Rogers Communication and Manulife, and when he’s not pursuing his continued education at York University, he’s playing hockey or doing some curling. He’s also been concerned about top down leadership in politics, and has been looking for alternative proposals. He wanted something more flexible, more grassroots, and definitely outside the box, and now, he’s running on it.

On this edition of the podcast, Potava will talk  us about why the Consensus Party made sense to him, how a Consensus government would work, and why it doesn’t sound as chaotic as you might think. And since there’s no platform per se, Patava will talk about the issues that matter to him, and why supporting municipalities and strengthening local democracy is the other important part of the Consensus Party’s platform. Last, but not least, does Patava think he has a shot of winning in Ted Arnott country?

So let’s talk about consensus on this edition of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast!

To learn more about Ron Patava and the Consensus Party, you can visit their website here.

NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Provincial election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, Stitcher, Google, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.